Molded flexible wall containers, such as blowmolded plastic bottles, are widely used for packaging a variety of products including various liquids, chemical cleaning agents, antifreeze, petroleum products and the like. Under previous practice, such containers were printed with an appropriate label, usually by employing silk-screen printing techniques. That procedure, however, has given way to a more current program of applying pre-printed labels, formed as endless tubular bands of flexible plastic, capable of being stretched over the exterior of the container.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,728 issued July 25, 1978, a machine for automatically applying such band labels to containers is described in which the band labels are automatically detached from one end of an elongated tubular supply roll; the individual bands being detachably secured to one another by perforation means. As each individual band is detached by the mechanism therein taught, it is pulled downwardly over the exterior of a below-position container and deposited at a desired axial location thereon to accomplish the labeling operation. While labeling machines according to the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,728 have been commercially successful and acceptable for their designed purposes, such are not particularly suited to relatively low volume, short run applications or in instances where frequent label changing is required.
While the aforenoted problem of label changing, and short run production can be met by applying band labels by hand, such an operation is undesirable because of uneconomic consumption of time and labor as well as the inability to make uniform application of the band labels. In addition to the problem of label change it is also to be recognized that container sizes and shapes present a corresponding problem, particularly in low volume applications. Thus automatic equipment which operates at high speeds and high volume application, does not lend itself readily to the low volume production problems met by this invention.
Among the various patents of the prior art which are of interest to the current invention are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,811,986 issued May 21, 1974; 3,850,777 issued Nov. 26, 1974; 3,792,807 issued Feb. 19, 1974 and the above mentioned U.S. Pat. 4,102,728 issued July 25, 1978.
Of these patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,792,807 and 4,102,728 relate to labeling apparatus in which the band labels are supplied from a continuous roll supply and are automatically severed or detached for application to the containers; U.S. Pat. No. 3,792,807 teaches the adaptation of its automatic label feed system to a manually operated label applying means while U.S. Pat. No. 4,102,728, is also concerned with a fully automated machine which not only automatically separates the band labels from the roll supply, but also automatically applies the same to containers. The other two patents, namely U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,811,986 and 3,850,777, are concerned with label applying devices in which individual labels are manually fed to an applying device and in which containers to be labeled are manually pushed or pulled into an opened label.